One Foot in Front of the Other, Repeat

At this very moment, I'm waiting for the town library to open so I can take my stuff down there and pretend I really want to write this paper that's due in 2 days.

That's about where I'm at though.

I was just reading back over some of my old posts (mostly to put together a playlist for tonight), and man...I was really excited to be in fitness at one point. The thing is, I still love it. During the day it seems like just one more thing to do, but without fail, I walk out of every class feeling better about myself and life in general.

Yesterday I taught 2 classes - tabata in the AM and then subbed for Rachel in the PM. Here's the playlist (which I'm 100% in love with and could play for another 5 classes if it weren't for everyone else getting bored with it):

For Tabata, I just use whatever PowerMusic mix feels right at the time. I find that the standardized BPM mixes are working well for that class...keeps the energy up consistently and gives one less thing to focus on outside of how hard you're working.

I went to #fitsocial this weekend (a little of it anyway) and had a blast. I wish I'd had more time to attend more of the sessions, but alas...staring into space hoping this paper writes itself doesn't happen on its own. I'll have a more formal post about that later this week, hopefully. I may even put together a review post for the Soybu top I got as SWAG. It may be my new favorite, so stay tuned.

Anywho. Here's tonight's playlist:

We're going to ride the Deceptive Intervals ride, but adding 60 seconds on either end so the whole set is 11 minutes each. With 2 minutes rest between each, that's about 50 minutes of work. w00t.

Anyway, I should go stake out my desk at the library.

Yay.

Midterms Playlist

Not great at posting interesting stuff, sorry about that. Here's tonight's playlist anyway:


Proud Heather Small
Paint It Black Vanessa Carlton
S&M (Come On) Rihanna
What The Hell Avril Lavigne
Planetary (GO!) My Chemical Romance
Panic Switch Silversun Pickups
Thriller/Heads Will Roll Glee Cast
Like OMG, Baby DJ Earworm
Till The World Ends Britney Spears
Into The Night (Featuring Chad Kroeger) Santana
Black Betty Ram Jam
This Is How A Heart Breaks Rob Thomas
Bass Creator Basshunter
Devour Shinedown
White Rabbit Emiliana Torrini

Another Tuesday, Another Playlist

Looks like I forgot to post last week's playlist.


30-min Electro Swing Mix (1) 29:12
Paramore - Crush Crush Crush (DjTaly 4:38
Highway Unicorn (Road To Love) Lady Gaga 4:16
Fall (Remixed By M83 VS Big Black Delta) Daft Punk 3:55
Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy) Big & Rich 3:22
P!nk - Try (Cosmic Dawn Radio Edit) 4:18
Follow Me Follow Me (Fast 5 Hybrid Remix) Tejo Black Alien and Speed 3:08
Nicki Minaj Pound the Alarm Remix [R 4:43
Haddaway - What Is Love 2013 (Andrew 6:04
Zombie (Techno Remix) 5:22
Barbara Streisand (Original Mix) Duck Sauce 5:00
Linkin Park - In The End (DJ Yoj Rem 4:30
Celine Dion - I Drive All Night 5:19
Imprint DoubleDrive 4:00

That first song was just the "welcome to class, find a bike" song, obviously. The ride was a modified version of the Road Trip spin. Same basic ride, just a couple of extra hills thrown in for good measure.


This week's playlist is this:


Spaceman The Killers 4:47
The Longest Day of My Life Armin Van Buuren 10:23
Nicki Minaj Pound the Alarm Remix [R 4:43
Calvin Harris ft. Florence Welch- Sw 3:28
Swedish House Mafia - Don't You Worr 3:24
059 - Ke$ha - Take It Off DJ Willis (williswho.com) 3:35
I Want You To Want Me (Live) Cheap Trick 3:38
Some Nights Fun. 4:37
Set Fire to the Rain (House Remix) Capt Kirk 3:26
Danger Zone (Album Version) Kenny Loggins 3:38
Bulletproof La Roux 3:26
Titanium David Guetta Feat Sia 4:05
Eminem - Lose Yourself Eminem 5:26
Stubborn Love by The Lumineers (Lyri 4:33

It's going to be a "ride to the music" kind of week. Honestly, I haven't even listened to that playlist anyway, so it will likely change up a bit before class anyway.

That's about it. We're hitting midterms, so it's been and will continue to be a bumpy week.

Oh, and I ran my first half marathon on Sunday. So there's that.

Maybe soon there will be a race recap, since that was kind of a big deal race for me. 2:06:38, which isn't too shabby considering it was my first and I was just hoping to finish in one piece.

Anyway.

Sneak Peek Playlist

Here's the line up (more or less) for tomorrow:


Plowed - Sponge
Right Now - SR-71
The Art Of Losing - American Hi-Fi
Cowboy Casanova - Carrie Underwood
Ke$ha - Die Young (Lyric Video)
Alexandra Stan - Mr Saxobeat
Usher - Scream (Audio)
Seven Nation Army (The Glitch Mob Remix) - The White Stripes
Swedish House Mafia - Don't You Worry Child
I Put A Spell On You - Marilyn Manson
Killin' It - Krewella
Remix (I Like The) - NKOTB
If I Had You - Adam Lambert
Thriller/Heads Will Roll - Glee Cast
Everybody & Ray Speak No Americano (Yolanda Be Cool & DCUP vs. Backstreet Boys vs. Ray Charles vs. Phantom of the Opera vs. Benny Benassi) Mashup-Germany vs. Faroff
Feel Again - OneRepublic
Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand - Primitive Radio Gods
Walk - Foo Fighters

This whole 60 minutes instead of 45 thing is throwing me way off...I'm so used to having effectively 35 minutes of hard work to come up with - those extra 15 really make a difference. Blerg. There are a couple of songs I'm not totally sold on (Scream, for example - great beat but man it's a filthy song), but I think this will work. I really need to get a better vibe of who's going to be in the class and this will get easier I think. 

This one is my favorite though: 

 I feel like I should have some more BSB and N'Sync or something in there, but this isn't actually a 90's song. Go figure.

Anyway. That's the plan. For now. Hope to see you there!

Tuesday Nights

Woah, hey, what's that to the right over there? Is that a calendar??

Yeah buddy, finally...I have a class! I just barely even filled out W4 stuff and I already have an official class (and got offered a second one that's unfortunately during lab meeting time...sad day). Tuesday nights at 6:30 PM, I'll be at AWC kickin' yer butt!

I really should be reading Neuro right now, so that's all I've got.

But this coming Tuesday should be my first class - come make me feel good and fill up the bikes! (Also, request music!)

Hairwell

Get it? Like farewell, but with hair? Because tonight's playlist is hair metal all the way baby.

Final count down - Europe
Nothin' But A Good Time  -  Poison
Poison  -  Alice Cooper
Rock You Like a Hurricane  -  Scorpions
Its A Long Way To The Top  -  ACDC 
Welcome To The Jungle  -  Guns 'n' Roses
Jump  -  Van Halen
Twisted Sister - Were Not Going to Take It
Mighty Wings (Album Version)  -  Cheap Trick
Feed my Frankenstein  -  Alice Cooper
Devour  -  Shinedown
Ave Maria - Hitman Soundtrack
Dreams  -  Van Halen

I had a good time finding this stuff, and there's a LOT that got cut simply because it's only a 45 minute class. I'm a little tempted to tell everyone they're welcome to stay a full 90 minutes if they want to...I'm not even sure what I'd do for that time, but I'm sure no one would like it. Worth it? Sure. But filters come down around minute 32.

The profile is going to be one of those "winging it" kind of rides. We'll see how it goes, but mostly...hills. Duh. I might actually switch Mighty Wings and Feed my Frankenstein so MW is last...that's a pretty epic final mile song, if you ask me. FmF is a solid heavy climb too, so...that works.

For the FIT class I'm teaching before spin tonight, here's what we're looking at:

That's pretty much what I do every week, by the way. Same notebook, same pink Sharpie (every week I look for a black one...never find it), same blue pen. As I put the moves in the boxes, I note what equipment we'll need up at the top, so it's easy to see what we need when I get to class. Tonight's not got a lot of toys but I don't think that's going to mean it'll be easy. It's probably not as much cardio as Karol usually does, but hey...it's my last class, so whatever. :-P

Oh, and PS for all you doubters out there (*coughLaracough*), here's as much proof as I've got that I ran Tough Mudder VT this year:

 Before

 At the end, immediately after crossing the finish line.

 With Calvin, our adopted Expendable.

 Hailing Jeremy.

 More hugging.

 Team after pic. We are fabulous.

 Monkey duck?

Pure, unabashed happiness. It was glorious.

For TM CO in a couple of weeks, I'm definitely planning on picking up a disposable waterproof camera of some variation. 

Classic Heavy Rock

Last week I got a fairly unanimous request for more "old metal" (not my term) including Styx (did you know they'd done more than that one song Cartman sang on Southpark??), Aerosmith, and The Eagles. I wasn't totally convinced that kind of collection would work, but I think I'm seeing a solid Strength ride in this mix:



Kashmir - Led Zepplin  -  8:30
Back On The Road Again  -  REO Speedwagon  -  5:27
Runaway  -  3:53
Go Your Own Way Fleetwood Mac  -  3:39
Life in the Fast Lane  -  The Eagles  -  4:47
Blue Collar Man  -  Styx 4:07
Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)  -  Journey  -  5:28
What Kind of Love Are You On  -  Aerosmith 3:16
Get Over It  -  The Eagles  -  3:33
You Give Love A Bad Name  -  Bon Jovi  -  3:44
All Along The Watchtower  -  Jimi Hendrix  -  4:01
Desperado  -  The Eagles  -  3:34

Kashmir is the pre-warmup song to play while everyone's getting settled. It's a cool song and it makes me laugh because of Matt Damon, but it's too long and slow for class time. 

I'm sure this list is going to cause some "how could you leave out X" outrage, but listen...it's my playlist. :-) Seriously though, it's hard to find stuff that translates well to spin. There's a reason I stick to poppy junk most of the time, that's all I'm saying. 

Anyway. 

It'll be a strength ride of some variation. Hills and whatnot. Shocker, I know. 

Aside from teaching 6 classes last week, I also spent 10+ hours out in the wind this weekend painting the house, and I think I'm still a little hung over from that. Seriously, the wind is more dehydrating than booze is. Anyway, I should probably go get dressed and whatnot. 

Make Time to Stretch

So I just got done teaching a lunch time spin class. I LOVE having that break in the day...I don't do well with working out in the morning, and lunch workouts break up the day nicely. The only problem though, is that it's a 45 minute class and my lunch break is technically an hour.

Technically.

I usually end up taking an hour and a half when I spin, mostly because I know my coworkers appreciate it when I shower post-diaphoresis. (Woah big words.)


So the workout is 45 minutes, the drive is about 15 minutes total, and shower/dressing time is 25 minutes (don't judge, I like my showers). So that leaves about 5 minutes to stretch, which is nearly never enough. What ends up happening looks like this: 


11:45: leave work, head to gym. 
11:50: get to gym, get changed, head upstairs
12:00: set up for class and talk to folks as they come in
12:15: class starts. ride hard and whatnot. 
12:55: cool down and stretch
1:00: hustle back down to locker room to shower and change
1:20: back in the car
1:30: at my desk, starving. make lunch, carry on with my day. 


So after 40ish minutes of hard work, we stretch for not long enough, then go back and sit at our desks for the rest of the afternoon. 


Sounds like a good plan, right? Not so much. 


If you're a lunchtime warrior, the 4ish hours post-workout can determine how you feel the next day. Particularly if you're working a desk job, getting up to walk around and stretch every 20 minutes or so (or at least every hour) is going to help a LOT. Doubly so if you're just getting back into a workout routine and you're pushing your limits already. 


Here's a great tutorial with some lower body stretching you can do at your desk, even if you're sharing cube space. Even if it seems goofy at first, you never know who you may inspire to get more active by not being shy about your routine! 

Now, if you want to get really outgoing with your stretching, here are a few other suggestions: 

Standing desk pigeon.  

Hike a leg up and lean on over.  You can do this in the break room too, particularly if you want to "claim" a table or counter.

Commandeering the Boardroom

This one works better the higher up the corporate ladder you are. That said, the shock value is much higher if you're a lowly peon. 

Crying calf stretch

This one's a good one if you're an attention seeker. Go make some coffee around 2:28, strike this pose, and wait for everyone else to come in for their coffee and ask if you're crying. 

"How clean are these floors?"

That hamstring stretch could get you a raise if you do it right. Just saying. 


And last but not least, here's one for those of you who don't work a desk job: 

Source

Those last two should be done in rapid sequence for maximum efficiency and awkwardness. 


Seriously though, there are no limits to how you can stretch at work. If you're really that embarrassed about it, book a conference room for 15 minutes at 3 PM and lock the door. Even better, be ballsy about it and schedule a 15 minute meeting for a few coworkers, and lead everyone in some stretching. 

Because let's face it...chances are, you're all wearing more clothing than this team is. 

Bad Blogger

Jeezo flip, I've been terrible at keeping this blog up lately. Sorry about that. Obviously things have gotten busy, but still...no excuse.

Moving on.

Yesterday was maybe one of my most active work days ever. I got up early and taught Katherine's 8:30 AM strength class, then rode from the gym to work (3.5 miles) on my bike. After work, I rode back and taught my 5:30 PM strength class. The riding to work thing was fun and not terribly novel, except that I had to ride through a rotary to get there and back.

Going 3 exits in a rotary on a bike is terrifying. Nevermind that there are 2 bridges (read: wind) between the gym and work as well. On the way back to my car last night, for the first time ever I started wondering if my bike were too light. The way the wind was blowing me around, I was sure I was going to end up with it pulled out from under me at any second.

Weeow.

So last week I gave my notice, and it was...anticlimactic. No tears, no throwing of things, nothing. I'm so disappointed when people in real life are way more professional than they are in my head.

Moving on.

Tonight's class is going to be a simulated ride of my impending road trip:

There's just so much Nebraska.

Starting in southern NH, I'll be cruising through MA, NY, PA, OH, IN, IL, IO, NE, then CO. 10 states, 32 hours of drive time.

I just looked it up and apparently it's only 5.5 hours to drive across Nebraska...why does it feel like 2.5 days???

Anyway.

---

So 10 states is easy enough to make into a ride:

NH: Warm up. Pack your stuff, we're heading west. Pee before we get on the road, I'm not stopping the car until we see the Rockies.
Open Road Song - Eve 6 - 3:18

MA: Just a few bumps in the road called the Berkshires out here. Add resistance and stay in the saddle for a seated climb.
Highway Unicorn (Road To Love) - Lady Gaga - 4:16

NY: Add a little more resistance as we head into the Adirondacks. Towards the end we get to the Great Lakes, which were terrifying the last time I drove through them (in January - hello white out) so we pick up the cadence a bit, drop the resistance a bit, and power through.
Fall (Remixed By M83 VS Big Black Delta) - Daft Punk - 3:55

PA: Just a short stretch, but it takes forever because of all the Amish folk clogging up the roads! Slow and steady (moderately heavy) on the verses and quick and light (out of the saddle push) on the choruses when we pass the horses. Plug your noses!!
Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy) - Big & Rich - 3:22

OH: Settle back into the saddle and pick up the cadence. We're almost at the hotel for the first night. Recover last 1:30.
Shut Up And Drive - Rihanna - 3:33


IN: Let's face it...there's not a lot in IN. However, there's still a lot of traffic on the highway, so we decide to play some games. Leapfrog the class, half out of the saddle, half in the saddle, 30/30.
Follow Me Follow Me (Fast 5 Hybrid Remix) - Tejo Black Alien and Speed - 3:08

IL: Come back into the saddle and settle in for a bumpy flat. 30 seconds flat, 30 seconds jumping for the duration of the song.
Bend it Like Beckham - Do Your Thing - 4:40

IO: Bring it up into a standing run to get to our second night's resting place sooner. Recover for the last minute - we're at my aunt-in-law's house for the night.
Zombie (Techno Remix) - 5:22

NE: Hands down, the worst part of the drive. Literally nothing to see for miles but corn fields, it's appropriate that the song for this phase only has 2 words to it: Barbara Streisand. Every time those words come on, add resistance or pick up the cadence just a bit. 

Barbara Streisand (Original Mix) - Duck Sauce - 5:00

CO: So close to the end! Kick up the cadence and soften the resistance down to a level that you can sustain at the upper end of your comfort level.
Celine Dion - I Drive All Night - 5:19

Cool down: Imprint - DoubleDrive - 4:00

---

So that's it, that's my drive to CO. It was boring to write, I'm sure it's going to be a party to drive...by myself...with the cat howling next to me because he's too smart to eat food laced with benadryl. Stupid cat. 

Relax, Don't Do It

Tonight's spin is going to focus on using breathing to control heartrate and, subsequently, power. The first half is going to be a lighter, faster hill while the second half will be a heavier, more nasty hill, based on the music.

The break is the Relax remix, where we release the tension and get funky for a few minutes. Then, crank it up and ride it home.


Wild Ones - Flo Rida Feat Sia
What You Waiting For?  -  Gwen Stefani
Tobacco Island  -  Flogging Molly
Machinehead  -  Bush
Our Truth  -  Lacuna Coil
Sail  -  Awolnation
FGTH_Relax 2006_MC_Remix
Bring Me to Life  -  Evanescence
Uprising  -  Muse
Seven Nation Army (The Glitch Mob Remix)  -  The White Stripes
Losing My Religion  -  Lacuna Coil


So that's it. Pretty simple tonight. I'll probably add pickups and whatnot as they feel fitting.

Sarah (hi Sarah!) and I are going to do a set of Bodyrock intervals tonight after class too. I'm writing that down so we can't back out and claim fatigue or laziness. It's only 12 minutes, how bad can it be right?

...right?

Yeah, should be good times. 

Sorry I've been absent lately (again). This whole selling the house thing is turning out to be more work than I could ever have imagined it would be. Seriously, anyone out there want to just buy the house and resell it yourself? Anyone? No? Sigh. 

Let's Get Awkward

Tonight's another 90s night ride and man am I looking forward to busting out some good ol' middle school memory triggers.

The premusic is the dialogue mix of My Heart Will Go On, because I can. Seriously, if you can't recite the song in its entirety, dialogue included, you clearly did not grow up in the same '90s that I did. Man oh man. The rest of it is pretty self-explanatory.


My Heart Will Go On (Dialogue Mix) - James Horner
Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)  -  The Offspring
Be My Lover  -  La Bouche
C & C Music Factory - Gonna Make You Sweat
The Call  -  Backstreet Boys
Waiting For Tonight [1999]  -  Jennifer Lopez
Livin' La Vida Loca [1999]  -  Ricky Martin
Macarena [1996]  -  Los Del Rio
Baby One More Time  -  Britney Spears
Just A Girl  -  No Doubt
Genie In A Bottle  -  Christina Aguilera
Children  -  Robert Miles
Summer Girls  -  LFO
Save Tonight  -  Eagle-Eye Cherry

The profile is the same one I did on Sunday, but the 45 minute version. Basically it's just increasing intervals of the 5 core moves: seated flat, standing flat, jumps, seated climb, standing climb. Start out with 1 minute each, then 2, then 3. That's half an hour of working time right there, so I'll probably add another 5 minute hill on to the end just for kicks to finish it out strong. 

Is Abercrombie and Fitch still relevant? I feel like it was a bigger deal back in the day. 

In other news, I feel like I've hit a turning point with my back. It's not feeling any better, but it suddenly feels like it's going to get better soon...you know like that day of a cold that you're SUPER sick but you know the next day you'll be over it? Like that. Here's hoping.

We've also got a little interest in the house already (YAY!) so we're having a mini-showing on Sunday. If you wanna buy a house, lemme know. No fair coming just for the cookies. I subbed out my class on Saturday (the second to last Saturday class I'm teaching...sigh) to help take stuff to the dump. So fun. But hey, we've got to clean up the wrestling ring in the back yard so our potential buyers can have a proper bidding war, right? 

Dramatic spandex clothing required at closing. We'll provide spit buckets and ref. 

Mild Schitzophrenia

I'm putting together tomorrow morning's playlist, and frankly I'm just exhausted. It was a LONG day of yardwork and sorting through junk and whatnot. So this playlist is a frankenlist of Wednesday's class and a class from December. I'm not sure how to feel about it...that extra 15 minutes of class (Sunday AM is 60 minutes and Wednesday is 45) always throws me off. Combine that with the fact that Sunday AM is a favorite of some of the more hardcore "Weekend Warriors" (hi, Damian!), and I know I can't phone it in. Not like I do anyway, but I can't just use Wednesday's workout for a Sunday morning class is all.

Hmph.

So anyway, this is what I've got. I hope it sounds as acceptable tomorrow morning as it does right now...it's bed time.


All Along The Watchtower (From 'Crossroads, Part 2') - Original Soundtrack
Blackout  -  Breathe Carolina
Panic Switch  -  Silversun Pickups
Take It Off  -  Ke$ha
Papi (www.DenFlow.Net)  -  Jennifer Lopez
Everybody Speaks No Americano  -  Mashup-Germany
Danza Kuduro Feat Lucenzo  -  Don Omar
Sandstorm  -  Darude
container park - The Chemical Brothers
The Longest Day of My Life  -  Armin Van Buuren
The Game Has Changed - Daft Punk
Guilty of Being Innocent of Being Jack Sparrow (Remixed by DJ Earworm)  -  Hans Zimmer
Extra - Requiem For A Dream - Remix2
Where Is My Mind?  -  Yoav
Samson  -  Regina Spektor

Remix This

So last Thursday night my mom and I went to Alicia's spin class, which was awesome. I rarely get motivated to take other instructors' spin classes anymore, which is bad...I forget how much great music there is outside the usual top 40s stuff.

So, playing off her great ride last week and keeping with my "all or nothing" mentality, here's this week's playlist:


Braveheart Theme - Techno Remix
Send Me An Angel (remix) - DJ-Paul Oakenfold
Adagio for Strings  -  DJ Tiësto
Utah Saints Take on the Theme from Mortal Kombat  -  Utah Saints
The Longest Day of My Life  -  Armin Van Buuren
The Game Has Changed  -  Daft Punk
Guilty of Being Innocent of Being Jack Sparrow  -  (Remixed by DJ Earworm) Hans Zimmer
Extra - Requiem For A Dream - Remix2
Afrika Shox  -  Leftfield Feat. Afrika Bambaataa
Where Is My Mind?  -  Yoav

The first half is pretty light, maybe even funny if you know the reference. (Maybe Mortal Kombat will go over better than Street Fighter, who knows.) Once the Armin Van Buuren song (courtesy of Alicia) hits though, things get heavy and we're in full-on boss mode. The first half is going to be quick, possibly with some jumps, and focused on moving our feet faster. The second half is going to be a solid, heavy climbing battle. 

And even as I'm writing this, I'm losing confidence in the idea of it...I hate that. I personally would love to work out to this mix. BUT. It's not just my workout, and I can't just mumble vague instructions that sound nothing like what's in my head (seriously you guys, I'm totally eloquent in my head...honest.) SO I dunno. Who knows, with the 70s+ weather we're having again today, maybe it's a moot point anyway. 

Who knows. 

Seriously guys, I'm so with it

Just to prove that I'm totally hip with what the kids are watching these days, tonight's spin is totally topical.

Yup, we're going to the Grammys.

Now, I thought that I might just rip off the whole thing entirely and see what made the list this year. I recognize like 6 of those things, and 5 of them are Adele.

Huh.

But, since I don't want to let anyone in on my shameful secret (that I really have no idea what goes on outside my little cubicle and the gym), I made up my own Grammy list. Without further ado, the winners are....

First up, the traditional Inappropriate R&B/Rapper Appearance:

     Forever - Chris Brown
(too soon?)
Best Warm up/Pump up song: 
     I Want You To Want Me (Live)  -  Cheap Trick
Best Working/Fast Flat: 
     Drive By  -  Train
Best Standing Flat with Pickups:
     What The Hell  -  Avril Lavigne
Best Seated Moderate Hill:
     Everybody & Ray Speak No Americano  -  Mashup-Germany vs. Faroff
Best Seated Hill w/Standing Pick Ups:
     You're Gonna Gonna Go Far Kid  -  The Offspring
Best Adele Remix/Working Recovery:
     Set Fire to the Rain (House Remix)  -  Capt Kirk
Best Moderate Running with Resistance w/pick ups:
     Take It Off  -  Ke$ha
Best Standing Moderate Climb:
     Black Betty  -  Ram Jam
Best Jumps on a Hill (during chorus):
     Panic Switch  -  Silversun Pickups
Best Standing Heavy Climb:
     S&M (Come On)  -  Rihanna
Best 2-minute Redemption with Attacks: 
     I'm Shipping Up To Boston  -  Dropkick Murphys
Best Cool down:
     Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand  -  Primitive Radio Gods

Enjoy!!

Love is in the Hair

I'm a freaking riot guys. 

Finally, the ride I've been promising is here. Tonight's ride is called "Summer Fling" and it's a love story.

We start the ride with Young Blood by The Naked and Famous, which feels like a Levi's ad to me. It makes me wish I lived in Cali so I could go surfing and have bonfires on the beach every night. That's totally all they do out there, or so I'm told. Our story starts on one such California early summer nights, with a bonfire on a beach. We're making friends with strangers who are, obviously, very attractive. We are all supermodels, after all.

The night turns into a summer full of fun, dancing, and PG-level promiscuity (OMG he kissed me!). Then, summer ends and we're all back to school with all the angsty longing that goes along with it. Finally, it's nearly Fall break and we have one final song (Ass Back Home, which sounds WAY dirtier than it is) to sprint us back into the arms of our summer fling.

Somebody To Love - Queen

Young Blood  -  The Naked And Famous

The Boys Of Summer  -  The Ataris

Love in America  -  JTX

Into The Night (Featuring Chad Kroeger)  -  Santana

Drive By  -  Train

We Found Love (feat. Calvin Harris)  -  Rihanna

(If You Are Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To  -  Weezer

Blink 182 - Going Away To College

I Belong To You [Mon Coeur S'ouvre A Ta Voix]  -  Muse

Ass Back Home (feat. Neon Hitch)  -  Gym Class Heroes

Samson  -  Regina Spektor

The rest of the story is left up to speculation and imagination on the drive home. Good thing I married my summer fling. ;-) 

Milestone: Nasty Names

Yesterday, as I previously indicated, I was completely fried. Just, utterly overwhelmed with everything. I wasn't even sure how well I was going to be able to hold it together to teach spin. I wound up playing this playlist: 

Proud - Heather Small

Dark Horses  -  Switchfoot

If I Had You  -  Adam Lambert

Miss Murder  -  AFI

I'm Not Okay (I Promise)  -  My Chemical Romance

Thnks Fr Th Mmrs  -  Fall Out Boy

Thriller/Heads Will Roll  -  Glee Cast

Lady Gaga - Bad Romance

Machinehead  -  Bush

Panic Switch  -  Silversun Pickups

Ass Back Home (feat. Neon Hitch)  -  Gym Class Heroes

On My Mind  -  Kalai

Moving On  -  Timmy Curran

The profile was simple. Three rounds of the following: 

3 minutes 30 up/30 down

3 minutes 15 up/15 down

1 minute up, adding resistance and mentally preparing for sprints

30 seconds sprint

1.5 minutes full recovery

30 seconds ramping up

30 second sprint

2 minutes recovery

I'd meant to do 4 sprints on the last round, but we ran out of time. I asked if they wanted longer sprints or longer prep (30/15) and it was unanimously prep. Wimps. 

After class I was logging my hours and one of my regulars came up to me and the following exchange happened: 

her: "what the heck was that?? I thought you said you were off your game tonight!" 

me: "yeah...that's the magic of spin I guess." :-D

her: "I was looking forward to an easier ride when you said you were out of it...at one point I told Dianne, "this is when I really want to call her a bitch!!"" 

So, there it is, folks...my first expletive name calling (to my face anyway) due to a hard ride. I'm going to tuck that ride away for a while and bring it out when I'm feeling particularly nasty again. I thought it was fun. Hard, but fun. 

Suffice it to say, it was another cleansing ride. 

Quick Playlist Post

Not much to say today. Work is haywire as usual and I'm a little out of it anyway. I had a whole whiney post written in my head about how my hands and feet have blisters all over them (thanks, climbing and circle runs, respectively), but without gross pictures (it hurts more than it looks like...my hands are so pink!!) it fell flat before it even made it to the keyboard.

Anyway.

Tonight's playlist is the result of looking for upbeat love songs that could tell a story and only managing to find songs about slutty women and one-night stands. Go figure. I know there are more love songs out there, but they're not in my current circulation. I'm mostly inspired by Drive By by Train and Ass Back Home (which is more romantic than the title implies) by Gym Class Heros. I have an idea of what I want to do with them, but it's not happening this week. Maybe next week.

Anyway, here's this week's list:


Ohio (Come Back to Texas) - Bowling For Soup
Drive By  -  Train
Centerfold (Apres Ski Mix)  -  Captain Jack
SOS  -  Rihanna
I Know You Want Me  -  (Calle Ocho) Pitbull
Wind It Up  -  Kat Deluna
Dirty Dancer (Feat. Usher)  -  Enrique Iglesias
Boys of Summer  -  DJ Sammy
My First Kiss (feat. Ke$ha)  -  3OH!3
A Girl Like You  -  Edwyn Collins
Ass Back Home (feat. Neon Hitch)  -  Gym Class Heroes
Candyman  -  Christina Aguilera
Naked and Famous  -  Presidents Of The U.S.A./Presidents of the United States of America

I'm probably not going to play that last one, not because it's wildly inappropriate (it's not, it's just funny), but because I'm saving up some of these gems for another 90s ride. I'll probably put Carrie Newcomer on the anchor spot instead. 

The ride is going to be deceptively simple intervals again. You know the one, 10 seconds hard, 50 easy, 20 hard, 40 easy, etc etc. I wish 100 seconds were easier to count on a hands clock. At this point in my week though, I'm not sure I can handle that kind of higher math while working out. 

Maybe I'll make tonight the world's first ever sleep n spin class. 

---

On a more uplifting note, I passed the Star 3 exam earlier this week, so now I'm an "elite" instructor who's put in a lot of hours and given Mad Dogg a lot of money. Go me.

---

This weekend I get to go to CO for my interview at UCD. I absolutely adore the school and location. I'm actually bracing myself for heartbreak because I know I'm going to love it out there.

However, Denver has some pretty awful breed specific legislation against pitbulls, which translate to "if you so much as drive through our county with a pit in your car, we'll kill it and arrest you." So they probably aren't going to throw a parade for our little derp machine.

A real menace, that one.

So unfortunately, there's already a pretty major strike against the school. I'm going to check around with shelters in the area and see where would be safe for us to have her though, in case they offer me lots of money (ha!) or something, but barring a financial miracle and a safe place to let the dumb one roam free, it's not looking good. Boo, Denver. Boo.

The weekend's not totally lost though - I get to see my baby brother, who I haven't seen in over a year!

On that note, back to work and such. Who's riding with me tonight? 

Word of the Day Wednesday

Today's word is hostile.

For some reason (maybe it's the reddit blackout, I dunno), everyone seems SUPER angry today. Normally I would be joining in on the fuss, but lately I've somehow managed to master the fine art of apathetic integrity. (Translation: I'll work hard to do what I need to get done, but I'm done getting all angsty about things beyond my control that prevent me from doing my job.)

So to that end, tonight's mix is a little grunge rocky, a little poppy, and totally fun.


Dog Days Are Over - Florence + The Machine
Natural Blues  -  Moby
La Grange  -  ZZ Top
Mondo '77  -  Film Dialogue
Dressed To Kill  -  A New Found Glory
We Found Love -  (feat. Calvin Harris) Rihanna
Leave It All Behind (UK Radio Edit)- September
Howlin' For You  -  The Black Keys
My Hero  -  Foo Fighters
* Plowed  -  Sponge
Are You Gonna Be My Girl  -  JET
Tobacco Island -  Flogging Molly
Dance, Dance  -  Fall Out Boy
Blackout  -  Breathe Carolina
(If You Are Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To  -  Weezer
Sexy & I Know It - (SR) LMFAO
If I Had You  -   Lambert
Papi (www.DenFlow.Net)  -  Jennifer Lopez
Machinehead  -  Bush
Walk  -  Foo Fighters
Here's To The Night  -  Eve 6
Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand  -  Primitive Radio Gods
Mad World  -  Donnie Darko

*ride starts here


The profile is simple...we're going up a hill. A really big one. I may even bring in some markers to draw on the mirror, but it's going to look vaguely like this:

4 segments of high resistance with 3 segments of "pedal fast to get your momentum up" resistance. The 3 shallow parts will be recovery for newbies and "less hard" for the vets. The hard parts will be the same number of minutes as the level of awful - so the first part will be 6 minutes long, etc. The easy parts will be 2 minutes each. Total working part of the ride is therefore 36 minutes - practically a gimme ride, right? :-) I'll throw in some pickups and gear ups as we go too, I'm sure.

A little explanation on why this playlist is longer than usual, with a few more "mild" songs preloaded to the front...

We got new bikes!! Last Friday, every bike in the EHSC network got upgraded to one of these beauties:

I'm expecting to spend a while helping folks verify setups, so I'm going to have music playing while I run around and do that, but officially start class at 7 instead of 6:45 like usual. It'll go until 7:45 though, to make sure we all get our workout in.

And sorry to cut this short, but the pup needs her shots before I can run off and hang out with my best good friend this weekend, so I'm off to be a responsible pet owner. w00t.

Exskis me

Let me give you a glimpse into my childhood.

When I was about 7, we moved to Norway for 3 years (3rd, 4th, and 5th grades). For 3 years, this place was where we'd go when dad wanted to get away. I have no idea how many times we went (maybe only 3 for all I know), but in the haze of childhood memories, it seems like we went EVERY weekend. Obviously, that wasn't true...we also went to Hemsidal and some other places. But for me, childhood skiing is defined by Blue 8 at Trysil.

Blue 8 was this sweet little hill that was maybe 400 meters in length (it seemed a lot longer at the time - maybe it was and I'm way off, I dunno) and had moguls at the top then these fantastic giant rolling mounds at the bottom that basically screamed, "GO SUPER FAST AND JUMP OFF ME!!!"

Sort of like this, but without the actual jump ramps. I think if they'd actually had ramps my mom wouldn't have let us ever see the slope.

Sigh. This is the reason I don't ski in New England. It's just not the same.

Anyway, all mountain snobbery aside, tonight's ride is going to be a day of skiing. Minus the 3+ hours of hot chocolate breaks I always made my mom take with me. Secretly, I think she liked them as much as I did. :-D

The ride is going to follow the purple line:

It starts at the black star in the bottom left.

Now, an important note about skiing in Norway. Most of the lifts are what they call "T lifts". You don't sit on anything, you kind of put the thing behind your butt, squat a little (not a lot or you'll fall), and hope for the best. It's a team effort to stay on the stupid thing, and if either of you falls or stops paying attention, you're both going down. The worst thing is that just at the end there's always a massive upslope that weeds out the weak and makes you ski the slope of shame all the way back down to the bottom to start over again. Because lord knows no one wants to take their skis off and then trash that last little hill by digging their moon boots into it.

So the lift line actually goes super high, which is why you can't just grab onto the thing again if you let go. Some of them are like 50+ feet off the ground. These things are no joke. I think this is also why few Norwegians use poles. Combine poles, idiot gloves, scarves, and a T lift, and you've got a disaster.

Anyway, back to the ride.

So for every lift, we'll be doing an easy seated climb. I wish I could do some kind of hover for these, but that's not actually good for your knees. Maybe I'll turn this ride into a Strength class for next week, who knows.

For the mogul hills, obviously we'll be doing jumps. For the green that goes from the top of the first lift to the bottom of the second, I can very distinctly remember the point where it suddenly stops being downhill and if you don't have enough momentum, you stall out completely. So we'll do a standing run for that and then add on resistance with the emphasis on kicking back, like we'd do with skis on. God I hated that part. Dad usually tried to do the ski pole sling shot with us, but even that didn't always work out so well.

For the black slopes, we'll be either running with resistance or in a very fast (80-90 rpm) standing climb. Because going downhill at an uncontrolled rate of speed may be fast, but you're tensing up so much to brace yourself against impact that it *is* actually a workout. Not a small one either.

The last green run will be the cooldown. I put us on a lift that had a few runs to it, so I can add another one if needed. :-)

The playlist is still in progress, so I'll post that later today or maybe tonight, depending on when it gets done.

---

UPDATE***

Here's tonight's playlist:


Hello Hurricane - Switchfoot
How do you do!  -  Roxette
Saturday Night  -  Whigfield
Hey Baby (Uhh, Ahh)
Cup Of Life  -  Ricky Martin
Inspector Gadget Rave
DHT - Listen To Your Heart (Techno) DHT
The Sweet Escape  -  Gwen Stefani Ft. Akon
Italobrothers - Stamp on the ground.
I Wanna Be Sedated  -  The Ramones
Rock You Like a Hurricane  -  Scorpions
Candyman  -  Christina Aguilera
If I Had You  -  Adam Lambert
Vice Verses  -  Switchfoot
Always  -  Switchfoot
Iris  -  Goo Goo Dolls

---

On a totally unrelated note, there's a new weekend open for Tough Mudder New England. July 14-15. Who's running it with me???

Taking it out on the bike

The thing I love most about Spin is that no matter how completely awful of a day it's been, there's simply never been a bad ride for me. There have certainly been mediocre ones, but a truly bad ride? Nah.

So yesterday's work day ended with my attitude something along these lines:

That should explain why last night's playlist was a little heavier than usual:


All Along The Watchtower - Original Soundtrack Battlestar Galactica
Help I'm Alive  -  Metric
I'm Shipping Up To Boston  -  Dropkick Murphys
The Beautiful People  -  Marilyn Manson
This Is How A Heart Breaks  -  Rob Thomas
Little Lion Man  -  Mumford & Sons
You're Gonna Gonna Go Far Kid  -  The Offspring
Ballroom Blitz  -  Misfits
No More Gas  -  DJ Earworm
Faster Kill Pussycat  -  Paul Oakenfold ft Brittany Murphy
Planetary (GO!)  -  My Chemical Romance
The Death and Resurrection Show  -  Killing Joke
Starry Eyed (Minnesota Remix)  -  Ellie Goulding
Soul Meets Body  -  Death Cab For Cutie

Since there were quite a few newbies in class, I tried to keep the movements slow, minus some jumps during the Rob Thomas song. Everything else was hills with pickups. During I'm Shipping Up to Boston and You're Gonna Go Far Kid, I had us running with resistance (position 2, standing, upper end of the climb range (80ish rpm), with moderate resistance), then during the choruses we'd lean over into a standing climb (position 3) and take off (pick up the cadence a bunch). I enjoyed it, and everyone was chattering afterward, so I think that means everyone was happy at the end of class...right? :-)